There’s not much to see yet at the three-story brick building in the Franklintown Road neighborhood in West Baltimore. But the future $32 million intergenerational center, expected to open in March 2026, is well underway.

On Wednesday, the center’s development reached a new milestone: a name.

Catholic Charities announced that the intergenerational center it’s spearheading will be named after Carolyn E. Fugett, a longtime West Baltimore community activist who died in 2023.

Kevin Creamer, a director of the center, said it didn’t take long after Fugett’s memorial service to decide that the center should be named after her. The naming is “a beautiful way to honor what was the truth,” Creamer said. “We wouldn’t be here without her.”

Fugett was a devout Catholic who prioritized family and education, according to her family. None knew this better than her six children who grew up only a few blocks away from the center‘s site.

Her son, Jean Fugett Jr., said his mother treated all her children like they were an only child, giving each the undivided attention and care when they needed it.

That caretaking and support later blossomed for her son, Jean Fugett, who would go on to play professional football with the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins. Her oldest son, Reginald F. Lewis, became a prominent lawyer and pioneering business leader whose contributions were honored by the city’s African American history and culture museum, named in his honor.

Fugett, a member of St. Edward Roman Catholic Church, served on several boards within Catholic Charities. She was also active on the political scene, encouraging people to vote and supporting certain candidates, her son said.

Jean Fugett hopes that his mother’s success in raising six children, writing an autobiography and being active in West Baltimore “can be an example of what can happen when you work together with the community and believe in God.”

The nearly 55,000-square-foot building used to be a school, Alexander Hamilton Elementary, which closed in 2021.

The Carolyn Fugett Intergenerational Center will house Catholic Charities’ first Early Head Start program in the city for very young children, pregnant mothers and their families. There will be nine Head Start and Early Head Start classrooms at the center.

Community residents will be able to come to the center and get training in construction, digital media and culinary arts. The food pantry at the now-closed St. Edward Catholic Church on Poplar Grove Street will be relocated to the center. Creamer said they are also going to have space for upstart organizations without offices of their own to use for meetings.

Arleaver Bell, 72, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1979, said she can see the center coming together from a white bench on her porch. The community, Bell said, is in need of a local space to meet.

Bell, who is now retired, said the neighbors still miss the old school, but are curious about whether the new center could house senior and rehabilitation services. The Fallstaff Villa Maria Behavioral Clinic, which aims to make community-based behavioral and mental health services accessible, is also moving into the center.

Bell said that beyond the new community center, neighbors have also talked about the need for a local library branch, bank, grocery store, day care and a physical home for police to improve their response times in the community.

“We don’t get the hope and help that we need,” Bell said.